In this series, I talk spoilers. So let’s get to it!

Let’s start with a film I loved a ton,

RED ROOMS (2023)

Streaming on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Pascal Plante.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/r1sj0OFXbkE

Some of the most intriguing parts of RED ROOM can be called spoilers, so let’s talk about them. To remind you, RED ROOMS is about Kellie-Anne (played by Juliette Gariépy), a French fashion model who becomes obsessed with a case involving a serial killer (played by Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) who broadcast his killings online for paying customers, also known as a Red Room. She meets Clementine (played by Laurie Babin), a homeless woman who is equally obsessed with the case. But the reasons why both women have taken such a great interest in the case is very, very different.

While we get to know what exactly goes on in Clementine’s head and understand her reason for being here, the beauty of RED ROOMS is how it keeps Kellie-Anne’s motivation for her obsession with the trial secret until the final moments. We see Kellie-Anne watch the killer closely in court. We see looking into the case, breaking into passcodes in one of the victim’s computer and even finding a way to get into one of the victim’s houses. And in the most disturbing scene in the entire movie, we see Kellie-Anne wear a wig, fake braces, and a schoolgirl costume to get the attention of the killer in the courtroom. Still, it isn’t until the final moments, when Kellie-Anne is able to access the Red Room, showing damning evidence to convict the killer murdering his final victim—footage that not only drains her bank account, but also hasn’t been able to be accessed by those forming a case against him, that Kellie-Anne is finally revealed to be a hero and not a Red Room obsessed groupie like Clementine. It moved me to no end, seeing how Kellie-Anne selflessly sacrifices everything—her career, all her funds, all of her credibility, simply to do a good deed by giving the final victim a chance to be heard, as uncomfortable and uninimaginable that video must have been. But she finally gets justice and any doubt that the defendant is a filthy murderer is decimated. At least that’s how I read the enigmatic final moments of RED ROOM. Hopefully, you’ve seen RED ROOM. This French Canadian film is an instant classic filled with tension, absolute horror, and courtroom drama, without showing a single drop of blood.

Moving on to

THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025)

New streaming on Shudder from IFC Films!
Directed/Written by Emilie Blichfeldt.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/5vZ1_Yxjwzs

Rebekka played by Ane Dahl Torp is a gold-digging widower who catches the eye of a seemingly wealthy Lord. With her two daughters Elvira played by Lea Myren and Alma played by Flo Fagerli, Rebekka quickly married the lord and moves into his castle with the Lord’s daughter Agnes played by Thea Sofie Loch Næss. But soon Rebekka finds out that the Lord is broke and soon after the Lord dies, leaving her with all of his debts. With Prince Julian played by Isac Calmroth seeking to wed someone soon, Rebekka goes about making her daughter Elvira beautiful enough for him to marry, by any means necessary.

There’s not much to spoil about THE UGLY STEPSISTER. If you’ve seen Disney’s CINDERELLA, it basically hits all the important points of the fairy tale with Agnes, who is this story’s Cinderella, winning the hand of the prince, leaving Elvira devastated. But in THE UGLY STEPSISTER, it’s the amount of body devastation Elvira endures and puts upon herself that makes the film stand out as one of the best of the year. Many found the fact that Elvira takes a meat cleaver to her own feet to fit into the shoe left with the Prince after the dance. But it was the truly nauseating de-worming sequence where Elvira swallows a potion to force the tapeworm from her own stomach that made me dance around and groan. In a comical, yet horrifying sequence, Alma tugs and tugs on the worm coming out of Elvira’s throat like a magician’s never-ending handkerchief. This sequence goes for a gruelling amount of time and even of you have an iron constitution, this scene’s going to make your stomach quiver a little. The film ends by showing Rebekkah as the true monster she is, ignoring her own daughters while going down on a wealthy prince, devouring her own worm of sorts. While Elvira is not put into a good light throughout the film, but after seeing what she endures in the final moments, you can’t help but wish her and her sister Alma some sort of happy ending as they escape their mother’s control and ride off into the sunset. In many ways THE UGLY STEPSISTER is this year’s THE SUBSTANCE as it touches on a lot of the same themes. THE UGLY STEPSISTER is a modern fairy tale unlike any other.

Finally, let’s spoil

SINNERS (2025)

Still in theaters from Warner Brothers, but come on, you should have seen it by now!
Directed/written by Ryan Coogler.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/bKGxHflevuk

Twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return home from Chicago with a tote bag full of money and a dream to open up their own juke joint with alcohol, food, blues music and all the fixins. They snag up their cousin Sammie (played by Miles Caton), a preacher’s son and fledgling bluesman and Delta Slim (played by Delroy Lindo) an old drunk bluesman, Smoke’s old squeeze Annie (played by Wunmi Mosaku) who is educated in the juju and set out to have opening night in a brand new barn Smoke and Stack purchased from a local businessman Hogwood (David Maldonado). But set to crash the party is Remmick (played by Jack O’Connell), an Irishman with a dark and vicious secret that means doom for all involved in Smoke and Stack’s new juke joint.

First off, VAMPIRES! Yes, I know it wasn’t a well kept secret that the monster of the movie was vampires, but still, I considered it a spoiler and never mentioned it in the review. So yes, Smoke and Stack’s juke joint is besieged by vampires. But there is so much more to spoil here.

I found SINNERS to be pretty much a template for making an original, big budget horror film. It’s not just a horror movie, it’s epic storytelling that crosses the cosmos and across time. For the most part, it’s a perfect movie, giving voice to a culture that hasn’t had many big budget movies and pretty much no big budget horror movies to call their own.

Still, the perfect film does not exist and I feel that while Coogler tells a wonderfully exciting, enriching, and terrifying story, he also stumbles over his own feet in the final half hour of the film which consists of about three to four endings too many. Much like the final chapter of Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS, it seems like Coogler and Co. found it hard to let go of the movie in the final moments. While I always love films that crosscut between two scenes, I think the scene switching between Sammie returning to his father’s church and Michael B. Jordan going Rambo on the KKK was excessive and not really necessary. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate the escapist fantasy of taking out a group of racists as much as the next guy. But the scene really comes out of the blue and puts a more political point on a tale that up to that point, was a much more nuanced story about the mixing of music, culture, people. The film does a good job of making comments about race, but none of it felt like it was being shoved into your face. It was natural to the story. On top of that, Michael B. Jordan’s story was basically over and I would have been satisfied seeing him simply succumb to his wounds and find peace with Annie and his baby. Sure, having him gun down racists with a tommy gun is going to get the crowd riled up, but it felt like a cheap call for applause and a chance to cram a message rather than a powerful end for the character.

But it’s not over. No, then we go forward to the eighties and we find out Sammie turned out to be Chicago’s own Buddy Guy! Which was a fun detail that went over well in the Chicago theater I saw it in. I would have loved it if this would have been it. Seeing Sammie become the bluesman we dreamed of being and treating the audience to one last blues song over the credits. But no, the scene goes on again too long, with a reappearance of Stack and Mary, with Jordan sporting a Bill Cosby sweater and Mary looking a little too much like Debi Mazar. After seeing these characters in authentic Depression era costumes all through the film, it just doesn’t fit seeing Michael B. Jordan and Hailey Steinfeld dressed like they just walked off a guest appearance on Yo MTV Raps. It took me out of the film and kind of ruined that awesome blues solo by Buddy Guy by having the guy act out a few lines. Guy is a legend, but sadly, no actor and this amateur attempt at drama just didn’t work for me.

The final bit of SINNERS, which is a solo by Miles Caton who plays young Sammie, is less annoying and would have rang much better had the other parts not been included. It simply features how much talent the kid has and is a nice little cherry on top to end this monumental film despite its flaws.

I know out of all of the spoilers, my thoughts on SINNERS is going to be the one most contested, and if you disagree, that’s cool. Let’s talk about it and all of the other spoilers I lobbed at you in this video in the comments below.

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Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
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